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Wild Magic
Tamora Pierce
Wildness is a kind of magicDiscover a land of enchantment, legend, and adventure in this first book of The Immortals series, featuring an updated cover – perfect for longtime fans and newcomers alike.Daine has always had a special connection with animals, but only when she’s forced to leave home does she realize it’s more than a knack . . . it’s magic. With this wild magic, not only can Daine speak to animals, but she can also make them obey her. Daine takes a job handling horses for the Queen’s Riders, where she meets the master mage Numair and becomes his apprentice.Under Numair’s guidance, Daine explores the scope of her magic. But she encounters other beings, too, who are not so gentle. These terrifying creatures, called Immortals, have been imprisoned in the Divine Realms for the past four hundred years – but now someone has broken the barrier. And it’s up to Daine and her friends to defend their world from an Immortal attack.Discover a land of enchantment, legend, and adventure in this first book of The Immortals series, featuring an updated cover – perfect for longtime fans and newcomers alike.
Copyright (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Copyright © Tamora Pierce 1992
Map copyright © Isidre Mones 2017
Jacket design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Tamora Pierce asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008304072
Ebook Edition © August 2018 ISBN: 9780008304089
Version: 2018-09-11
PRAISE FOR TAMORA PIERCE (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
‘Tamora Pierce didn’t just blaze a trail. Her heroines cut a swathe through the fantasy world with wit, strength, and savvy. Pierce is the real lioness, and we’re all just running to keep pace.’
LEIGH BARDUGO, #1 New York Times bestselling author
‘Tamora Pierce creates epic worlds populated by girls and women of bravery, heart, and strength. Her work inspired a generation of writers and continues to inspire us.’
HOLLY BLACK, #1 New York Times bestselling author
‘Tamora Pierce’s books shaped me not only as a young writer but also as a young woman. Her complex, unforgettable heroines and vibrant, intricate worlds blazed a trail for young adult fantasy – and I get to write what I love today because of the path she forged throughout her career. She is a pillar, an icon, and an inspiration.’
SARAH J. MAAS, #1 New York Times bestselling author
‘I take more comfort from and as great pleasure in Tamora Pierce’s Tortall novels as I do from Game of Thrones’
Washington Post
‘Tamora Pierce and her brilliant heroines didn’t just break down barriers; they smashed them with magical fire.’
KATHERINE ARDEN, author of The Bear and the Nightingale
Dedication (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
To Raquel Wolf-Sister and Tas Horse-Hearted
who opened my heart to the songs of all beasts
Contents
Cover (#u890716d5-b4ac-5537-bb3a-3379505b2b7a)
Title Page (#uaf1faa68-0ee5-5e06-97a9-3558c89fa517)
Copyright
Praise for Tamora Pierce
Dedication
Map
Chapter 1: Girl with a Pony
Chapter 2: The Hawk
Chapter 3: Spidrens and Meditation
Chapter 4: The Queen’s Riders
Chapter 5: Wild Magic
Chapter 6: Magelet
Chapter 7: Buzzard Rocks
Chapter 8: Pirate’s Swoop
Chapter 9: Siege
Chapter 10: Listening Far Enough
Epilogue
Afterword
Read on for a preview of Wolf-Speaker: Book Two of the Immortals Quartet
Also by Tamora Pierce
About the Publisher
Map (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
CHAPTER 1 (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
GIRL WITH A PONY (#ub0dabcd8-15f8-5912-8ce0-a78def693e0e)
Each year, at the end of March, a great fair was held in Cría, the capital of Galla. Like thousands of others in the Eastern Lands, Onua Chamtong went there to do business: buying ponies, in her case. This year she had another transaction to make and was having no luck with it. By the end of her fifth day at the fair, it seemed she would never find the assistant she required. The prospect of taking her animals south, with no one to help, was an unpleasant one.
‘Excuse me – Trader Onua?’ The speaker was a girl, shy and country bred. ‘I heard you was hiring. I’m’ – she paused, then went on – ‘a fair hand with animals, all kinds.’ She waited as Onua looked her over: a girl in a green wool dress, skirts short enough to show leggings and boots. Brown curls tamed by a head-scarf fell to thin shoulders. A soft, full mouth said she was vulnerable; her chin was entirely stubborn. A quiver filled with long arrows hung on her back, a bow rested in her hand, unstrung.
‘Is that yours?’ the trader asked, pointing.
Blue-grey eyes flashed. ‘I’d not have the nerve to carry it otherwise.’
‘Hmph. String it.’ The girl hesitated. ‘Just what I thought,’ Onua jibed. ‘Whose is it, really?’
The girl brought a coiled string out of her sash. With ease she fitted it to one end of the bow and set it against her foot. Raising the free end of the string, she brought the other end of the bow down, hooking them together neatly. The bow strung and in her grip, she turned sideways to it, caught the string in two fingers, and drew it back to her ear in a smooth, practised gesture. Now Onua could see she wore an archer’s wrist- and armguards.
‘I’d put an arrow up,’ the girl said, gently releasing the string, ‘but I’d hit someone, surely.’
Onua grinned. ‘I’m impressed. I can’t draw a bow that big.’
The girl took the string off the bow, coiled it, and put it away. ‘Nor did I, at first. I keep this one limber, or I still couldn’t draw it.’
‘Crossbow?’ The question was out before Onua remembered, I don’t want to hire her – I want to send her home to her mama. She’s a runaway for sure.
‘Yes’m. We have—’ Something flickered in her eyes. She looked down. ‘We had bandits at home. I stood watch with the sheep, so I learned crossbow and longbow. And sling’ – a half smile appeared – ’not that I’m bragging.’
We had, Onua thought. Did she change it ’cause she wants me to think she’s been gone from home awhile? Or hasn’t she got a home?
Something looked around the girl, inspecting Onua with a large brown eye. It was a shaggy mountain pony, a steel grey mare. She was plump and well combed, and easily bore two packs.
‘Yours?’ The girl nodded. ‘How much would you ask for her?’ Onua motioned to a pen filled with ponies at her back. ‘I’m in the market.’
‘I can’t sell Cloud. She’s family – all the family I got.’ Again Onua saw a flash of sorrow that was pushed aside.
‘What’s your name?’ The K’mir stuck her fingers into a pouch filled with powder known as ‘eyebright’.
‘Daine, mum,’ came the soft reply. ‘Veralidaine Sarrasri.’
The eyebright made her fingers itch when Onua called on her magical Gift. ‘How old are you, Daine?’
‘Fifteen.’ An aura of red fire, visible only to Onua, flared around the girl’s face. The lie was a good one – she must have practised on the way, the trader thought wryly – but a lie nevertheless. She looked about thirteen.
‘Where are you from?’
‘Snowsdale, up north. About two weeks’ walk.’
There was no flare of red – she had told the truth. Onua sighed. ‘Are you a runaway? From home, or a bad master—’
‘No, mum.’ The soft mouth trembled. ‘I got no family – just Cloud.’
No red fire this time. Onua dusted the powder from her hand. ‘I’m Onua Chamtong, of the K’miri Raadeh.’
Daine looked puzzled. ‘The k-k – the what?’
‘The K’mir are a people to the east. Raadeh is the name of one of the K’miri tribes.’ Daine looked only slightly less baffled. ‘Never mind. You say you’re good with animals. C’mere.’ She led the girl to her pen. Inside, twenty-seven shaggy ponies in all colours and sizes milled around.
‘I buy horses. I had an assistant, but he got offered a better job working for a horse merchant here, and I wasn’t about to hold him back. If you hire on – and I didn’t say I’d hire you – you’ll help me take these south. It’s three weeks’ drive – if we don’t bog down in mud, if we aren’t hit by raiders, and if we go before all these people take the road to the next fair. It’ll be just you and me, and my dog, Tahoi. Why don’t you climb in and look ’em over? I want to see how you manage ’em.’
Daine glanced back at her mare, Cloud. ‘Stay put, and no biting,’ she ordered sternly, and clambered over the fence into the pen.
Poor thing must have been alone a long time, to be talking to a mare as if she could answer back, Onua thought. She sat on the fence rail to watch.
The ponies watched as Daine passed among them. Ears went back. Those close to her appeared to wonder which would do better: a bite or a kick.
When a yellow stallion, the king of the small herd, minced into place at her back, the girl spun and put both hands under his muzzle, lifting his head to stare into his face. ‘No, sir,’ she told him firmly. ‘I’ll not stand for any tricks. I may be human, but I’m not stupid.’ The stallion tried to rear. She forced him down, then blew gently in his nostrils, to teach him her scent. He shuffled, then fidgeted – then bowed his head in submission.
Horse Lords, Onua thought. She’s establishing domination over him and the entire herd!
In years of managing horses, she’d never seen the like. This particular breed was famous for its fiery nature (one of the reasons she purchased them for her employers). She had achieved peace – of a sort – with them using her strength, her wits, and bribes. All horse folk handled their animals that way. Only this child was different: Daine treated the stallion as if she were a pony herself, a dominant one.
She isn’t lying about her folks or running away – just about her age. If I let her go, she might get into trouble. There are too many predators around, looking for a pretty like this one. The road isn’t too safe – but what is?
She watched the girl move among the ponies, running her hands over each one. She was giving them bits of apple and sugar from her pockets. Onua was glad to see she could deal with the animals in a normal way. One display like that with the stallion was more than enough.
‘D’you ride?’ she called.
Daine came over to the fence. ‘Some. Mostly bareback, but I can use a saddle, and I know how to look after tack.’
‘What about hunting, fishing, tracking?’
The grin lit a face that was too thin and eyes that were too weary. ‘I do all that – had to, to get this far. I couldn’t trust folks on the road. Some looked like – bandits.’
As Daine climbed over the rail, the shadow was back in her eyes: grief, Onua decided, but anger too. ‘Tired of them already?’
The girl shook her head. ‘I’m getting an oil I have, and a swab. The strawberry has ear mites. They’re not too bad – if I get them now, he won’t spread them to the herd.’ She went to the grey mare, who was plainly sulking, and opened one of her packs.
‘How do you know you can trust me?’
Daine shrugged. ‘I don’t. How do you know you can trust me?’
